


(rules are) meant to be broken

by theycallmesuperboy



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Best Friends, Breaking all the rules, College AU, Friends to Lovers, M/M, One Night Stands, Pining, not crack but it started out that way, this is more lighthearted than my than my other stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-19
Updated: 2017-05-19
Packaged: 2018-11-02 13:35:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10945575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theycallmesuperboy/pseuds/theycallmesuperboy
Summary: When Luke opened the door, the RA-- Wedge, or something, Luke recalled-- was standing there, looking at him skeptically. Luke wasn’t sure if it was because he’d been sleeping at three pm and probably had bedhead, or if it was because-- “This is Leia Organa’s room, isn’t it?”





	(rules are) meant to be broken

**Author's Note:**

> ~~Yeah I know I promised a Dark Side AU but that was kicking my ass!! so I worked on this instead~~
> 
>  
> 
> GDI!! This was supposed to be a Jyn/Cassian AU that turned into a side plot about Luke and Wedge that turned into an actual fic.
> 
> RAs, if anyone didn’t know, are Resident Assistants-- they live in the dorms to offer advice and enforce the rules. There are three cardinal rules about being an RA that will get you fired: don’t give your residents alcohol, don’t go into their rooms without their permission, and _don’t sleep with your residents._
> 
> [You can find the photoset for this fic here.](http://baegarrick.tumblr.com/post/160840901637/rules-are-meant-to-be-broken-college-au-16k)

When the student opened the door to room 2187 for room inspection, Wedge looked at him skeptically. Honestly, he wasn’t quite sure what was throwing him off more-- the fact the student looked like he had been sleeping at three pm, with his blond hair sticking up in every direction, or the fact-- “This is Leia Organa’s room, isn’t it?” Wedge said, looking down at his clipboard, and then to the doorplate saying the room number. Yes, this was certainly her room, but the student in the doorway was not a five foot tall woman.

“Um,” the student said. He seemed to be shorting out, sleep-addled brain too tired to say anything. Wedge recognized the student from the first floor meeting he’d held a few days back, so he was certainly one of Wedge’s residents. His name was… Luke? Starkiller? Skywalker? Wedge had always been pretty good with faces.

“Is she… in there?” Wedge said, peering around Luke. It had only been three days since move in, but kids these days moved fast.

“Er,” Luke said, what Wedge was implying finally catching up to him. He went red. “No! Leia’s my sister.”

“Oh,” Wedge said. And then, “And you’re in her room without her because…?”

“She’s dating my roommate,” Luke said, “and I really don’t wanna see that. She let me sleep in her room since her roommate never showed up.”

Wedge sighed, “Well I have to do a room inspection.” When Luke didn’t say anything, he raised his eyebrow, “Can I come in?”

“Oh, yes,” Luke said, stepping aside, and then realizing his mistake. “Wait, just kidding--”

But Wedge had pushed past him, and was staring at all of his stuff. “Luke, Leia _does_ live here right?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s _her_ stuff?” he said incredulously, nodding in the direction of ‘Leia’s side.’ Which was currently under a mountain of Luke’s clothes because he’d passed out in the middle of unpacking them. He’d managed to hang one of his posters of the Cantina Band, and had another three for the Rebel Aces fighter squadron under his bed. Leia’s bed. Whatever.

“Yes,” Luke said. “She loves, um, tee shirts.”

“I’m sure she does,” Wedge said, not believing him at all. He looked around the room for another minute, frowning as he marked off the appropriate boxes on his clipboard. “Despite this _blatant violation of the rules_ because switching rooms is _not allowed_ , the rest of _Leia’s_ room seems to be up to code.” Wedge sighed, looking up at Luke, and for a moment, Luke actually felt a little bad. “Please go back to your own room so I don’t have to report this.” He turned around, sighing again, “Well I guess my next stop is your room.”

But before Luke could stop him, he marched out of the room, leaving Luke to chase after him. “Wait!” he called as Wedge crossed the hallway to ‘Luke’s’ room.

Luke cringed as Wedge called out, “Han, Leia, I’m coming in for room inspection!”

“They don’t like to lock doors!” Luke called as Wedge pushed the door open, shutting it less than ten seconds after, his face red. Luke winced.

“I’ll…. come back later,” Wedge said, his voice tight. Luke nodded. This was _not_ how he was planning for his first week as an RA to go.

* * *

By the second week of classes, Luke and Leia had not switched back to their own rooms, from what Wedge could tell. They _had_ , from what he’d seen, started to avoid him altogether-- which was difficult, because his room was the first in the hallway off the stairs and they had to pass it every time they wanted to get to their own rooms.

And he knew they were avoiding him specifically, because he _would_ see them in the hallways or the dining hall or on the way to class. Every time he’d try to speak with them about switching rooms, Leia would smile innocently as though she couldn’t hear Wedge calling her name, and then would attempt to either push or pull her brother away from the scene, giggling, “Hurry up!” as though Wedge couldn’t see them. The first time, he’d gaped at them, leaving Luke smiling back at him sheepishly, as if to say, _what can you do?_

Every attempt to talk with them after that was met by the two of them making poor attempts to escape until Wedge gave up, filing a complaint at the end of the first week. He didn’t _want_ to put in a complaint about them, especially not in the first _week_ , but neither of them were taking housing policy seriously, and this was _Wedge’s job_. If neither of them would talk to him, he’d have to take drastic measures. He’d caught Han-- Luke’s roommate-- once, but the man had said something like, “Oh, uh, well you know--” and then made a dash for it saying, “Sorry, class?” even though it was a Saturday.

His complaint went unanswered by housing administration. He gave it a few days, allowing for the dorm administrators to get up and running again in the new school year, but even his maintenance request for the broken kitchen door was answered and replaced, and he still hadn’t gotten any reply about the siblings. So at the end of the second week, thinking maybe the first email was eaten by the system, he emailed housing again, only to have it similarly ignored.

When the siblings also ignored the emails he’d sent them, and the flyer he’d slipped under their doors, Wedge became frustrated enough to go see what the problem was himself. He marched down the stairs into the lobby of the R1 building, and then past the front desk to the administrative offices for both R-buildings.

He knocked on the door to his superior’s office, the office his ResLife Coordinator Mon Mothma shared with the R2 RLC, Vader. He heard a voice telling him to come in, and when he pushed open the door, he saw only Vader. Wedge stood hesitantly in the doorway, “Is Mon coming back soon? I have a complaint to make.”

Vader shook his head, his deep, rasping voice saying, “No. She left for lunch. Two hours ago.” Wedge averted his eyes. There was something unnerving about the man that threw Wedge off. It wasn’t his physical appearance-- though the six-foot-seven man, with burn scars running up both sides of his face was physically menacing, he had a particular air of command to him that intimidated most of the RAs who had to deal with him, Wedge included. He felt bad for everyone living in R2 that actually had to report to him. He was lucky that he got Mon-- when he could actually find her.

Wedge sighed. He figured that making the complaint to someone in housing was better than no one. “I put in a complaint-- two, actually-- about two of my residents. They’re blatantly ignoring housing policies, and refuse to speak with me no matter how many times I’ve tried. But for some reason my complaints keep getting deleted.”

Vader sighed, pushing off from his desk to face Wedge. Wedge rather wished he hadn’t. It was bad enough speaking to the man at all, much less having his full focus on him. Wedge instead stared downwards at the man’s black-clothed chest. Every time Wedge had ever seen Vader he had been wearing a black leather jacket, even in the heat of August. “Okay, who are these two troublemakers?”

“Uh, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa. It seems they’ve switched rooms?”

“To be with each other?” Vader frowned, sounding very much to Wedge like he’d heard that exact complaint before.

“No, I think Leia switched rooms with Luke to be with her boyfriend, or something,” Wedge sighed. It was all he’d managed to piece together after two conversations with the trio.

Then, to Wedge’s everlasting surprise, Vader stood up suddenly, and marched off angrily towards the R1 dorms, leaving Wedge confused and alone in his office. After a dazed moment, he chased off after the man, who was much faster than he looked. He hadn’t even needed to ask the room numbers of the siblings, because when Wedge exited the stairs onto the second floor, he saw the three of them in the hallway in the middle of some sort of standoff.

“Well this wouldn’t have happened if you’d have let us be roommates in the first place!” Leia said, hands on her hips, looking up at Vader as if she wasn’t half his size.

Mirroring her posture, Vader had his hands on his hips looking down at her, “We’ve already discussed this,” he spoke with a finality in his voice.

Luke groaned, “Why can’t we be roommates again?”

Vader turned to Luke. Not angrily, Wedge realized, but exasperated. “Because you two need other friends! How many times have we gone over this? Now move back into your own rooms or I’m having one of you moved to the A buildings!”

The siblings groaned, with Leia crossing her arms and spitting out, “Fine.”

Vader crossed his arms, looking down at her, and then said, “This is the last time I’m deleting complaints about you two.” Then, as quickly as he’d marched up there, he walked past Wedge without even acknowledging him.

Before he could even ask the siblings what that conversation was possibly about, Wedge saw Leia throw herself onto one of the couches in the floor’s common room. From where Wedge was standing by the stairs and the single elevator, he could see both halves of the floor, though he was just in charge of the left side. The common room was on the left side, just before his room, the floor’s kitchen on the right.

“You should have just changed your name like me, Luke!” Leia called out, annoyed. “Now I get why Mom must have died to get away from _him_.”

“And Uncle Ben,” Luke chimbed in merrily, much less annoyed than his sister. He was perched on the arm of the couch opposite her.

“ _And_ Uncle Ben!” Leia said, throwing her hands in the air.

“And Uncle Yoda…”

“Our actual aunt and uncle…” Leia sighed, “Why do all of our relatives keep dying and leaving us alone with him?”

“Um,” Wedge said, feeling very lost, and possibly a little perturbed.

Both siblings jerked their heads up, surprised to see him there. “Oh,” Luke said, “sorry, Wedge, we didn’t see you there?” He looked to Leia, who was shaking her head as she stood up.

“Oh no, Luke, I’m leaving this one up to you,” Leia said, throwing her hands up again. “I have to pack and move all my stuff, remember?”

“I do too!” Luke said, but she was already letting herself into her-- Luke’s? it was getting difficult to remember-- room.

Wedge crossed the hallway to him, sitting down on the arm of the sofa across from the one Luke was sitting on. “Care to explain what all that was about?”

Luke sighed, “Dad thinks we need more friends?”

“Dad?” Wedge said, reeling. That whole conversation suddenly made a little more sense, but somehow, not at all any less alarming.

Luke’s eyes widened a little, “Oh, yeah, sorry! Forgot everyone didn’t know-- Vader’s our dad.” Wedge was sure he looked confused, because Luke said wryly, “You didn’t think Vader was his actual name, did you?”

Wedge sighed, “At this school, I honestly don’t know anymore.”

“Leia took German in high school. I took Spanish. Dark Padre didn’t sound quite as stupid to call him behind his back,” Luke said with a wry grin. “I think it stuck when we were touring colleges because they’ve called him that ever since.” Then, as an afterthought, “His name’s actually Anakin Skywalker, by the way.”

“Uh, thanks,” Wedge said. He stood, and then sighed again, “Now that your father’s involved, will you please move back into your correct room? I’m trying not to get fired within the first month.”

Luke gave him a two finger salute, and then followed Leia into whatever room she’d gone into.

* * *

A couple days later, Wedge finally got around to doing laundry. He had a sack of quarters and a half-full laundry basket, and it was nearing two am when he carried the things downstairs to the laundry room. He preferred to do his laundry in the middle of the night-- had all four years when he discovered the laundry rooms were always empty past midnight.

But to his surprise, he wasn’t the only one in the laundry room that evening. Sitting on one of the laundry machines not in use, under harsh fluorescent lighting, was Luke Skywalker.

“You know you’re not supposed to be sitting on those things,” he called out to Luke. Luke looked up, surprised to see him there, his legs dangling off the side of the machine temporarily stilling.

“I know,” Luke said, pulling his legs up beneath him, and wrapping his arms around them.

But it was two am, and there was no one else in the laundry room, so let him do what he wanted. It wasn’t going to win him any points by alienating all of his residents, that wasn’t what Wedge had wanted at all when signing up for the position. He’d wanted to help residents, to be friends with everyone, to lead people! Well, he’d also wanted the free room and food, but that was beside the point.

Wedge pulled open one of the machines next to Luke, “What brings you down here at two am?”

“Oh, it’s because there’s never anyone down here at night,” Luke said, surprising him. “I, uh, lived in the D2 dorm last year.”

“You’re a sophomore, right? What’s your major?” Wedge asked, dumping his clothes into the machine. He wasn’t really particular about separating colors or any of that, it's not like he had any real fashion sense, anyway. If something came out the wrong color, he probably wouldn’t notice.

“Yeah I am, you’re a senior, right?” Wedge nodded, “I’m an astronomy major,” Luke told him, “The stars and all that. What about you? I think you said it at the meeting on move-in day but I wasn’t really paying attention,” he admitted sheepishly.

“It’s alright, I know it’s pretty overwhelming,” Wedge said, pouring a cap full of detergent into the washer. “I’m studying engineering. I’m hoping to build aircrafts, but honestly I’ll settle for whatever kind of job I can get.” He fished a couple quarters out of his bag.

“Here, let me help,” Luke said, offering his hand for the quarters. Wedge gave them to him, and Luke leaned across the machine to put them in, so Wedge wouldn’t have to. Wedge told Luke the settings he wanted, and he pushed the buttons.

“Thanks,” Wedge said, regarding his now-empty laundry basket. He thought about leaving to go back up to his room where the book on his nightstand was waiting for him, but Luke was still sitting there on the machine, and Wedge felt as though he couldn’t leave him alone. So instead, he crossed his arms and leaned up against the machine next to his.

For a few minutes, there was a lull in the conversation. As much as Wedge had liked the idea of getting to know everyone, he sometimes struggled to find the words to do it. But then Luke spoke, picking at the frayed edge of his tan sweatpants.

“I’m sorry for all the rule breaking Leia and I get up to,” Luke said, “I don’t mean to make your job harder, or anything.”

“Oh,” Wedge said, surprised. “Uh, thanks,” he said, offering Luke a smile.

* * *

It was late Friday night when Cassian, the RA from the floor above Wedge, texted him about a noise complaint he’d received from one of his residents. Wedge was not at all surprised when he saw the offending room number. He sighed, getting up from his desk where his workbooks laid, to go knock on Luke and Leia’s door. Well, Leia’s-- he’d seen her finish moving back into her own room a few days back, but her roommate had never checked in with Wedge to get her key, so Wedge assumed that Leia was living in there alone. Or with Han, who Wedge saw enter her room as often as she did.

When Wedge got closer to her door, he could see why there was a noise complaint. Even outside the room and down the hall he could hear the muffled eighties music blasting loudly from the room. He knocked on the door, loudly. A moment later, he heard the muffled sound of a man’s laughter.

The door swung open, causing Wedge to come face to face with Luke, who was halfway through saying, “I’ll get it, Leia!” Luke stood in the doorway in a red plaid shirt, his hair tousled, and grinning at Wedge, as though he was genuinely happy to see him. Looking at him, Wedge suddenly felt _young_ and _unprepared_. And then Luke said, “Oh, hey, Wedge.”

Wedge cleared his throat, “There was a noise complaint?”

“Oh, sorry, I’ll tell them to turn it down,” Luke said, looking sheepish. Wedge nodded. Luke began to close the door as Wedge turned away, but stopped himself, smiling. “Hey do you wanna come in?”

Wedge heard someone behind him yell out, “Is that the RA? _Luke!_ ”

Luke turned, yelling back, “Yeah, but it’s Wedge! He’s cool.”

Wedge knew he should be back in his room, studying for his first quiz of the semester in differential equations, but it was Friday night-- even if he’d never really been the type of guy to go out-- and Luke was inviting him in. And they were-- something like friends, right? And so Wedge followed Luke into the room.

The room was dimly lit. The only lighting in the room came from glowing string lights along the walls, the glow of the speakers, and from one of those lamps that projected stars on the ceiling that was positioned on top of Leia’s dresser. Besides Luke, Leia, and Han, there were three people in the room that Wedge didn’t recognize-- one of them looked vaguely familiar, he was incredibly tall, with a scraggly beard and hair, and two smaller men-- one black, one white-- both with mustaches.

Wedge stopped when he saw what they were sitting around, as if it was some sort of campfire-- a circle of various bottles of alcohol-- whiskey, vodka, and beer, from what he could see-- and others Wedge couldn’t identify based on silhouet alone. There was an opened pack of cards next to the bottles. As the music played on, Luke settled down cross-legged in the circle.

“Guys, this is definitely against the rules. Really, really against the rules,” like, get-him-fired against the rules. Wedge really, really wished he could unsee this. It was one thing to break the rules by drinking quietly in their rooms, another to invite the RA! The group exchanged looks, and someone handed him a beer. Wedge sighed, already thinking of his own demise, and took the beer as Luke introduced him to the three he didn’t know.

“That’s Chewie, he’s a Russian international student, friend of Han’s--” Luke said about the tall, hairy student. The student said something, but the only one who understood him was Han-- What? He took Russian in high school. The black man was Lando, another buddy of Han’s, and Biggs, a friend of Luke’s. Wedge finished off his mostly-warm beer by the time the rest of the introductions were made, and was promptly handed another one by Luke.

The music never did end up being turned down, and if Wedge recieved any more text complaints from Cassian, he didn’t check them. They played drinking games and sang aloud badly to the music, and-- Wedge knew, somewhere deep in there, that sometime around his sixth drink that leaning in to kiss luke was a bad idea. But he couldn’t find it within himself to quiet care at that moment, so he did it. He remembered eventually following the kid to Luke’s own room and pushing him down onto the mattress to kiss him more. And he remembered waking up the next morning with a splitting headache, naked, in bed with one of his residents knowing that he did a _bad thing_. Like a _get-him-fired_ bad thing.

Wedge shot up straight-- which only made the headache worse-- only to lean back down and put his head in his hands. This was bad-- he was _totally going to get fired_. Following Luke into his room was a bad idea. Taking a drink was a bad idea. _Following Luke into his room, not reporting any of it, and then sleeping with his resident was a bad idea._ Well he definitely wasn’t going to report it _now_.

Beside him, Wedge heard the rustling of sheets, and then Luke yawning. Wedge glanced over in time to see the man’s eyes open, hs gaze settling on Wedge, who’d had to pry himself away from Luke. Luke’s eyes widened as he took in the scene, and he sat up. “Oh fuck.”

Wedge groaned, and he wasn’t sure if it was from the hangover or the situation, or both. “Listen Luke… last night was fun,” he found himself cringing at what he was saying, “I mean, what I can remember of it,” a lie, he could remember all of it, “but, my job-- I mean, if anyone finds out about this-- especially your dad!-- I’ll be fired--”

Luke slumped against the wall with a loud lump, “I thought you were gonna be mad I got you drunk!” he sighed, relieved. Wedge looked back at him frowning, but he saw genuine relief on his resident’s face, as though he was really worried about the implications of him giving _Wedge_ alcohol. “That’s fine, we’re friends, right, Wedge?”

“Yeah,” Wedge said, although that was certainly not what Wedge would have said.

Luke leaned forward, “Oh, wanna come to breakfast with us in the dining hall? I gotta wake Han and Leia and the others up, it’ll be hilarious, Leia is way worse than any of the others when she’s hungover.”

Wedge shook his head, though there wasn’t any rule against eating with residents-- in fact, it was encouraged-- he felt a rather guilty and paranoid. “No, uh, thanks,” he says, his voice almost stiff.

Luke had scrambled off his bed, and was rifling through his underwear drawer, pulling on his clothes. Wedge looked away. He hurried to pull on his own clothes from the previous night, looking through Luke’s peephole to see if anyone was around. When he saw that no one was, he made his excuses, and made a mad dash to his own room, hoping no one would see him and recognize his clothes from the night before.

When he reached his room, he collapsed at his desk, dropping his head in his arms, thinking, _What the hell did I do?_ He groaned, taking two aspirins from his desk drawer, thinking miserably about how he probably should have gone with them to breakfast because he would have killed for some coffee.

* * *

Wedge knew that he wasn’t going to get any studying done, so instead of wasting the day with his head plastered to the desk, he headed over to Hobbie and Rake’s apartment to play video games, because he knew neither of them were studying for the test either.

“I can’t believe you got drunk last night,” Rake said as he swung the controller around like it would improve his gameplay. “Without us!”

“Don’t remind me,” Wedge groaned. He still had a throbbing headache, but the aspirin had started to kick in, and the coffee he’d eventually gotten up to make had helped.

“What even happened?” he asked. “Did they drug you and then force you to participate?”

Wedge knocked shoulders with him, “Hey! I know how to have a good time.”

“Yeah, but with your _residents_?” Hobbie said, giving him a look, as if he knew Wedge wasn’t telling the whole story. “There wasn’t like a really hot one or something, was there?”

“No,” Wedge said a little too quickly. He saw Hobbie and Rake exchange looks.

“Oh, no, there was!” Hobbie said. Rake reached forward to pause the game, and sat back with his arms crossed.

“We’re not unpausing unless you tell us more!” Rake said, Hobbie nodded in agreement.

Wedge sighed, leaning back on the sofa. “What can I even say? They offered me beer and I didn’t wanna do equations!”

“Sure they did. Who is it? Otherwise we’re kicking you out and going back to homework,” Rake said, nudging him with his foot. Hobbie high fived him.

“Fine. I’ll admit one of my residents is…. attractive,” he thought of Luke’s blue eyes and bright smile, “And it’s _very much against the rules_ for me to date him. Not that I want to.”

Hobbie raised an eyebrow, “So drinking with your underage residents is cool, but dating him isn’t?”

“No!” Wedge said, “There will be no drinking with my residents ever again, nor will I date them,” it was holding a position of power over them that was created a problem with RAs dating residents. “I don’t even have time to date anyone. I have RA stuff and classes.”

“Says the guy who probably hasn’t gotten laid in like two years,” Hobbie scoffed. _Or twelve hours_.

“There’s more important stuff than that,” Wedge said, hoping his face wasn’t as red as it felt. Rake unpaused the game.

* * *

After finishing his test on Monday, Wedge made plans to meet up with Sabine Wren after her studio drawing class she had immediately after their differential equations class. Unlike Hobbie and Rake, she still lived on campus over in the G dorm, citing the accessibility to the studios on campus over the extra space of an apartment. He was leaning up against the wall outside the dining hall closest to the R buildings waiting for her when he heard, “Wedge!” and felt a hand on his arm, coming face to face with Luke, and not Sabine like he’d expected.

“Oh, god!” Wedge cried out, mostly out of surprise. But also a little bit because it was Luke. He hadn’t seen him since they’d slept together-- he’d been holed up in his room the rest of the weekend studying, and just a little bit, he could admit to himself, because he was worried what Luke might do or act like if he saw him again. He didn’t think Luke would report him, he seemed like a lot more of an upstanding guy than that, but Wedge had thought _he_ was more of an upstanding guy to sleep with his residents in the first place.

Wedge didn’t flatter himself to think that he was the most attractive guy on campus, but Luke was young, and he knew that some people got a little too fixated on people they slept with, and was worried that might happen with Luke. Saturday morning he’d seemed fine, but Wedge regarded him warily now-- he didn’t want his resident crushing on him, even if the resident was-- admittedly-- cute.

Luke’s face looked worried as he released Wedge’s arm. “Are you alright? Sorry if I startled you, I waved, but you didn’t see me.”

“Uh, yes, sorry,” Wedge said tensely. “What can I do for you, Luke?”

“I’m going to eat with Jek and John from down the hall,” Luke said, thumbing over his shoulder, “do you wanna join us? I was volunteered by Jek to ‘see if the RA wanted to join’ because he thought you were intimidating or something,” Luke laughed. “You haven’t eaten with any of us since the first week of school when we went down as a group!”

Wedge rubbed the back of his head. That was true, the beginning of the year was already kicking his ass, but that was no excuse, “Sorry, Luke,” he said, thinking of Sabine. “I’m meeting a friend here, but we should plan a floor dinner later. I’ll email everyone about it later?”

“Alright, cool,” Luke said, his expression unchanging. “Just know that we’re your friends too, even if you’ve got to maintain a level of professionalism,” Luke said, teasingly.

Wedge snorted, patting Luke’s arm, “Go catch up with your friends, I think I see Sabine.” He was pretty sure the girl skateboarding in his direction was her-- she was the only person in the area to have bright blue hair, changed just for this semester. He’d almost not recognized her on the first day of class, it had been pink the last time he’d seen her. As soon as Luke left, he let out a sigh of relief. Wedge thought he was probably just being paranoid. Luke didn’t seem to be treating him differently than anyone else, no different than he had before.

Sabine stopped directly ahead of him, kicking her skateboard up in front of her. “Hey, was that one of your residents?”

“Yeah,” Wedge said, “and no, I’m not introducing them to you. You steal all my friends, you can’t have this one too.”

* * *

A couple weeks later, during which time Wedge passed two exams-- and was waiting on a third-- had to deal with a pair of bickering roommates, one resident-- not even from his floor!-- who’d thrown up and laid unconscious on the floor bathroom, and had to put out a fire in the kitchen, Wedge ran into Leia as he was heading towards the floor’s common room.

For once, she was alone, but carrying a huge stack of papers. “Wedge!” she said upon spotting him. She crossed over to him, dumping the stack into his arms.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“I’m running for student council senate,” she informed him, matter of fact. “Last year I was my dorm’s hall council president, and this year I’m going big.”

Wedge looked down at the expertly-made fliers in his arms, featuring a picture of Leia, as well as all her platform stances. “Wow, Leia, I’m proud of you,” he said truthfully. “Great job on these posters. Need help putting them up?” It wasn’t like he was doing anything important today, it was much more important to him to help his residents succeed.

Leia nodded, “Have any friends? I have another three boxes of these. I used my dad’s printer code to get all of these printed off for free.”

He sighed, not expecting anything less from this family. “I’ll see what I can do,” he said, not bothering to address the fact that using staff codes by students was not allowed. She nodded, and he turned in the direction of the stairs.

He found both third floor RAs-- Cassian and Kay-- in the third floor kitchen, standing by the door. Cassian looked up when Wedge walked in, Kay following his gaze, “What’s up, Wedge?” Cassian asked, crossing his arms.

“One of my residents is running for student body senate,” Wedge said, “Do you guys mind putting some of these up around the building?” he peeled away half the stack and handed them to Cassian.

“Yeah, of course,” Cassian said, handing some of them to Kay, who looked down at the papers disgustedly. Honestly, Wedge didn’t know how the man had even gotten hired, he never did anything unless Cassian told him to.

“Thanks guys,” Wedge said.

Cassian nodded, crossing over to give the rest of the stack to a girl sitting at one of the tables behind them, “C’mon Jyn.”

She looked up, groaning, “Do I have to?”

“Yes!” he said, and Wedge shook his head. She was probably one of his residents-- or not, he thought, as he saw the way she smiled as soon as his back was turned to her. Wedge nodded at them, and then went back down to his floor, the fliers tucked under his arm as he pulled out his cell phone. He’d sent a message to Hobbie and Sabine in the group chat about putting up posters in their department buildings, and the phone buzzed as he pulled open the door to his floor.

Looking up, he saw Luke with a stack of fliers in his own arms, frozen as he reached for the door handle. Luke unfroze, looking Wedge over, “She got you too, huh?” Luke said, nodding at the stack in Wedge’s arms. Wedge nodded, and leaned against the open door. “I told her she should run for student body president, but she said that was too ambitious. I mean, what do I know?” Luke shrugged, “I’m studying astronomy, not political science.”

“She’s bright, has a real leadership ability,” Wedge agreed. “She’ll do great in this position,” he said, with no doubt she’d get it. He’d seen her arguing with several people, Wedge included. If he didn’t already know her ambitions were to go into politics, he’d say she had a real shot at being a lawyer. She certainly had the mouth for it. At the end of the year he was going to recommend that she apply to be an RA, he’d be graduating and someone would have to replace him. He’d be happy if it was one of his own residents.

Luke nodded, and raised his stack of fliers, “Gotta put these up before she hands it to me,” he said, making a move to step around Wedge, who nodded.

“Wait,” Wedge said, stopping Luke before he’d had a chance to start up the stairs. “I’ve already got someone on that in the building, but if you want to come with me, I was on my way to the library, and we can put up fliers on the way?”

“Yeah, sure!” he said without hesitation, following Wedge down the stairs.

When they reached the lobby, Wedge paused, nearly causing Luke to run into his back. He looked across the lobby at the R2 side, and then looked to Luke, recalling what Leia had done earlier. “Do you think your dad will let us into the R2 dorms?”

Luke raised an eyebrow, nodding, “Smart.”

Two weeks later, Wedge could hear them celebrating Leia's victory from his room. If Wedge thought he'd heard footsteps outside of his door, briefly, and then gone, he was probably imagining things.

* * *

Wedge was heading down to the dining hall when he spotted Luke heading up the stairwell looking at his phone, and waved in his direction when Luke looked up and put it in his pocket. “Hey, Wedge,” Luke said, stopping halfway up the stairs, in front of Wedge. “Are you eating?”

Wedge nodded, “Yeah, wanna come?” Now that the semester was nearly halfway over, he was supposed to be meeting with all of the residents on the floor to see how they were doing so far, and this would be a good opportunity to meet with Luke. Plus, he liked hanging out with Luke. He was fun.

“Yeah, hold on, I gotta drop this stuff in my room,” Luke said, lifting the strap of his backpack. Wedge nodded, following him back up to his room. Luke invited him in, so he stood in the doorway of Luke’s _actual_ room. Luke’s side was the only side that actually looked lived in. On the opposite side of the room, the closet was full of clothes, but the bed looked untouched. Han’s books and laptop weren’t even on the desk next to Luke’s. Luke must have seen what Wedge was looking at, because he nodded, “Han basically doesn’t live here,” Luke said, “He basically just comes back for clothes.” Of course he doesn’t, Wedge thought.

When they got to the lobby doors downstairs, they stopped. In the five minutes it had taken them to go to Luke’s room to drop off his things, it had begun pouring. Through the window they could see students sprinting in their direction, using notebooks and backpacks as makeshift umbrellas. Wedge turned to Luke, “Wanna chance it?”

Luke nodded, “C’mon, we can do it,” and turned to Wedge with a grin. Luke pushed the door open, holding it open for Wedge, nodding his head to let Wedge know he wanted him to go first.

“Not without you!” Wedge said, pulling a laughing Luke out into the rain with him. They sprinted across the lawns between the grouping of dorms to the dining hall, pulling open the glass doors and stepping in dripping wet.

Luke slicked his hair back to get it out of his eyes, “How do I look?”

“Handsome,” Wedge said dryly, wiping his own face off on his sleeve. Other than their heads and faces, they were mostly dry, and would certainly dry off enough in order to get wet again when they had to run back to their dorms after they ate.

“Thanks, I know,” Luke laughed, handing the woman at the desk his ID card to swipe him in. The two of them split up to get food, meeting up at a seat under the windows, where they could see the rain running down the panes. The sky was only getting blacker, but it was calming.

“So how’s your semester going?” Wedge asked, while looking down at his somewhat disgusting food. At least it was free with the job.

“Pretty good,” Luke said, pushing his food around his plate. He leaned on the round, two-person table, and looked out the window. Wedge continued to ask him questions about the semester and his classes, and how he was doing-- not just as a student, but as a person. Eventually, Luke, overly honest, began to answer Wedge’s questions with more than just the standard two-word answers he’d gotten from everyone so far that semester. He began telling Wedge all the things he’d managed to get up to that semester, waving his utensils around passionately as he was telling him. Wedge watched, almost transfixed, as he got into a story about a prank war he’d gotten into last year with his dorm, which resulted in him meeting Han, who’d wanted to kill him for getting eggs in his bed.

Wedge couldn’t stop laughing, so surprised that when Luke started asking him questions back, he was answering him honestly-- about his plans as an engineering major, why he’d wanted to be an RA in the first place, and how he’d been holding up too. For a few minutes, Wedge forgot that they weren’t just friends, but RA and resident.

* * *

Midterms week had Wedge suffering and going to the library almost every day to meet up with his usual study group-- Hobbie, Rake, and Sabine-- since they were in most of his classes with him as fellow engineers. He had one project with Rake in his lab class, and then another with Sabine in his technical elective, and he was pretty sure he would have died last week if Sabine hadn’t spent half her studio time working on the technical model for their class. She’d also painted it hot pink, which Wedge hoped wasn’t against the rules.

He’d just dropped down at the library table with a cup of coffee-- the only thing he’d consumed in the last twenty-four hours-- when he looked up to see a familiar blond head heading in his direction. Luke didn’t seem to see him, so he stood up, and called, as quietly as he could, “Luke!” His friends still looked up anyway.

Luke’s head snapped in his direction, and he shuffled over to the table. “Hey Wedge,” he said, “haven’t seen you around the dorms in a couple of days.”

“That’s because we’re dying,” Rake said, groaning.

“Ignore him,” Sabine said.

“Yeah, sorry,” Wedge said, turning back to Luke, “hope you didn’t need anything. I mean, you have my number.”

“Yeah,” Luke said, reaching up to the strap of his backpack. Sabine elbowed Wedge. Oh, right.

“Luke’s my resident,” he said to the group, “Luke, these are my friends, Hobbie, Sabine, Rake,” he said, pointing to them.

“Hi Luke,” they all repeated as if they’d rehearsed it, without looking up from their books.

“I’ve seen you guys around the dorm before,” Luke said, shifting from one foot to the other. “Are all of your friends engineering majors?”

“I’m engineering _and_ art,” Sabine said, shrugging, “I need a hobby to keep me sane. And not that one,” she pointed towards Hobbie with her pencil.

“Who has time for people who aren’t in our classes?” Rake said, sighing down at his homework.

“Wedge does!” Hobbie said, “Don’t you, Wedge?” he said, snickering. Wedge shoved him.

* * *

Wedge was sitting on his bed with his laptop with his headphones in when he heard a knock on his door. For a moment, he wasn’t sure if he’d actually heard it or not, but then it came again. Wedge called out for them to come in, putting his laptop down and swinging his legs off his bed, suddenly hoping it wasn’t his boss because he hadn’t bothered to change out of his plaid pajama pants in two days.

Instead, he saw Luke peek his head in the door, and then step all the way in. “Hey, Wedge, do you have that book you said I could borrow last week?”

“Oh, yeah,” Wedge said, having completely forgotten about it. He’d been telling Luke about it one evening when he’d had duty rounds, and it had been two am when he’d come by his floor to check the fire extinguishers and saw Luke in the kitchen.

Luke lingered in the doorway with his hands in his jean pockets, looking around, “I’ve never been in here before.”

Wedge paused his looking for the book for a moment, suddenly feeling self conscious about the state of the room. There were half a dozen empty mugs of coffee on the bedside table he hadn’t bothered to wash, his bed was mostly unmade, and he hadn’t been able to use his desk chair since midterms because it was currently holding his technical elective project that Sabine had disgustingly told him he could have after they only got a B on it. He’d been slipping, usually he had a fairly neat room, but hadn’t had time or the will to clean it lately. Soon enough the semester would be over and he’d have plenty of time to clean it without any classes over winter break.

“Well the door’s always open, as I said at the first floor meeting,” Wedge said, standing up straight. Very few of the residents actually took him up on that.

Luke crossed the room, sitting down on the edge of Wedge’s bed. Wedge briefly paused, thinking of the last time he’d seen Luke in bed. Wedge shook his head, ridding himself of that thought, and put his hands on his hips, because he actually had no idea where he put that book when he’d finished it. He hadn’t been thinking when he offered it to Luke.

As he searched the mound of textbooks on his desk, and then under his desk, he watched Luke out of the corner of his eye. He was quiet, his eyes shifting around the room.

Maybe he’d dropped it under the bed? He dropped down to his knees, looking underneath the bed-- just old socks and a couple of pencils, but he did spot the old paperback underneath the side table, among all the dust. He must have knocked it off when he was done with it, to make room for the mugs.

“Here you go,” he said, holding the book over to Luke, who took it, with a complicated look on his face.

“Thanks,” Luke said quietly, and hurried from the room.

* * *

The semester came to a quick end after midterms, and soon enough Wedge found himself back at the library nearly every night. Classes had ended two days ago, and most students were, like Wedge, holed up in the library, or celebrating the end of classes the old fashioned way. It was late as he crossed campus back to the dorms with his bag slung over his shoulders. He wasn’t sure what time it was exactly, but the moon was high, and the stars were out. Most of the lights in the campus buildings were out, including most of the lights in the windows of the dorms as he approached them, though he could still see the glow from the lobby.

He pulled his jacket closer around him as he felt the chill of the wind. He looked up at the sky, no signs of snow. Snow was late this year. Earlier in November it had snowed briefly overnight, but by midday the pits of snow were puddles of muddy slush, and they hadn’t seen any sign of it since. When he looked back down at the ground to watch where he was going, he saw, off in the distance, someone laying in the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of his building.

As he got closer, he realized he recognized them. “Luke,” he said, worriedly as he looked down at his resident, “What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?”

“Stargazing,” Luke said, his hands folded on his stomach. He looked over at Wedge out of the corner of his eye, and said, "You can join me if you want?"

And maybe it was the lack of sleep, or the fact they felt like the only two people that existed out there in that moment, but Wedge did. He dropped his shoulder bag, and sat down, scooching over until he was on his back next to Luke.

Luke raised his hand, pointing at a cluster of stars, “You can see Orion’s Belt there,” he said, moving his hand up, “and if you trace up that way, you can see the outline of him, where he’s raised his bow to strike the scorpion. I mean, you can see him most of the time,” he shrugged his shoulders in the grass, “but he’s always been a favorite of mine because he was the easiest for me to spot when I was younger.” Wedge nodded along. Luke pointed out Ursa Minor, finding the northern star among its constellations. He told Wedge everything he loved about space, all the quirks of the night sky.

Wedge knew most of this. He used to sit out under the stars when he was a kid and look up at the constellations, wondering what it might be like to be among them. But he let Luke talk, pointing out all of the visible constellations in the winter sky. As Wedge looked over at him, seeing the waves of his hair fall on his forehead, the way his eyes flared passionately as he spoke, the curve of his lips, Wedge felt his heart seize, and thought, _oh no_.

For a moment, he was paralyzed, because this-- he couldn’t _like_ Luke, forgetting all of the other rules he’d ever broken when it came to the man-- for god’s sake, Luke didn’t even like him! Wouldn’t even want to date him if it wasn’t against the rules! He’d made it perfectly clear that after-- well, that more than anything, he’d just wanted to be Wedge’s friend. Never made any sort of move otherwise.

As he lay there in a panic, Wedge rationalized that he would just have to forget about it, follow Luke’s example, and try to be his friend. What else could he do?

“Wedge are you listening to me?” Luke said, quietly, his face turned to Wedge’s. He hadn’t even noticed Luke had stopped speaking.

“Yes, of course, sorry,” Wedge said, pulled from his thoughts. “I was just distracted by--” he trailed off, looking into the blue of Luke’s eyes in the dim light. Luke gave him a particular look, and then turned back to the stars. Wedge followed his gaze.

* * *

He’d bribed them all to come to the last floor meeting of the semester with free food. He’d gotten Sabine to brave the snow and pick up danishes for him at the store, and emailed everyone on the floor to come to the common room so he could go over late-semester announcements, mainly involving going home, now that finals were over. They all piled into the six couches and chairs, sitting on tables and at Wedge’s feet as he pressed up against the cold window. He could see snow falling out of the corner of his eye as they passed the plastic container of food around the room.

He reminded everyone leaving to unplug any fridges they had, told them to be careful driving home if this was the last time he saw them all before winter break-- it had started snowing the day after Luke and Wedge had gone stargazing, and had only gotten heavier since. Wedge had been surviving in his room on coffee and instant ramen since it had started snowing, and he didn’t want to dig out his snow gear except for absolute necessities, like when his friends refused to come all the way over to his dorm and he had to come to them.

“I think that’s it!” Wedge said, clapping his hands together. His eyes searched over the heads in front of him, mostly staring blankly. His gaze caught briefly on Luke, who’d turned to say something to his sister. “I just wanted to say I’m really proud of all the hard work I’ve seen you do all semester,” he said to all of them, “have a good winter break!” He dismissed them, stepping away to help one of the freshmen who’d asked for his help to move his bed so he could shimmy under to unplug the fridge before moving out.

When Wedge came back out, he saw Luke and Leia had claimed one of the neon green couches under the window, and were wrapped in one of Leia’s blankets, another on their laps. They were looking out the window at the snow falling, and had something steaming in a mug in their hands. Based on the time of night, Wedge assumed it was hot chocolate.

Wedge took a seat on the arm of the couch across from them. They looked to him, “Hey guys,” he said. “What are your winter break plans? Do you know when you’re leaving?” he propped his feet up on the edge of their couch.

“We’re going skiing with some friends in the mountains,” Luke said, taking a sip from his hot chocolate. “What about you, Wedge?”

He shrugged, “I’ll probably just stay here, there’s not really much to go home to.” He hadn’t officially volunteered with the other RAs yet, but he probably would later tomorrow.

Leia elbowed Luke, who yelped and looked back at her. For a moment they seemed to have a wordless conversation between them, with Luke finally saying to Leia, “Okay, okay, I’ll ask!” Luke turned to Wedge, “Do you wanna come with us? Skiing?” If he looked a little red to Wedge, it must have been from the cold, because he looked at Wedge enthusiastically.

“What?” Wedge said, “I can’t possibly--”

But the words were rushing out of Luke’s mouth, “No, you can! We’re taking Han’s car, we’re leaving in a few days, when everyone’s finals are done. We’re renting a cabin, just for us--”

“We might end up sharing beds…” Leia remarked with a snicker.

“She’s kidding. We have enough space, they’re bunk beds,” Luke said, sending Leia a look. Then back to Wedge, “It’ll just be us and a couple of friends. You met them at the, uh,” Luke said, his face going a little red, “the party at the beginning of the year.”

He considered the alternative. Staying in the dorm all winter, having to do rounds with the other RAs that volunteered to stay behind, or. He could go skiing for two weeks in the mountains with Luke and his friends. He looked at Luke, still unsure, “I--”

“Say you’ll say yes,” Luke said. And he found he couldn’t say _no_ , not to Luke.

* * *

Two days later, after informing Mon that he was going to be gone for the first two weeks of winter break, they climbed into Han’s old van that was certainly not meant to hold seven people. They’d waited outside the dorm steps, shivering, as Han pulled the van around, and then tossed the sleeping bags and snow gear into the back of the van before climbing in themselves.

He ended up sitting next to one of the other guys from the party, a man with a mustache, who he recognized as, “You’re Biggs, right?” Wedge said, holding out his hand to shake.

Biggs took it, “Wedge, we met at the party, right? I’ve heard a lot about you,” he gave Wedge a knowing look.

Wedge felt self conscious again, “How do you know--” he said, waving his hand to the group at the front of the van. Biggs looked over at the chaos. Han was driving, with Chewie in the passenger seat beside him with a full-sized map pulled out, and Leia in between them. Luke and Lando were both in the back of the van like he and Biggs, but they were both draped over the front row attempting to help navigate. They were all arguing.

Biggs laughed, “Luke and I grew up together, we reconnected when we came to the same college. He’s a pal.” Wedge nodded, and then sighed, settling in beside his new friend. It would be a long drive.

* * *

It took them five hours to get there, not including the lunch break and three bathroom breaks, and the time they had to stop to replace _two_ tires, at which time everyone in the car suddenly professed knowledge of being a mechanic, nevermind the three summers Wedge actually worked at a mechanic’s shop to pay for school!

By the time they arrived, they were so tired and argued out that everyone just wanted to haul the sleeping bags up into the cabin and fall asleep immediately, even though it was barely six pm. But they had to get to chopping wood from the store under the house, and move all of their things inside. Chewie volunteered to get wood to get the fire started, while they all started hauling things up into the cabin, heading in through the mud room at ground level.

“Damn, Lando, you weren’t kidding when you said the place was nice,” Han whistled when they stepped up into the first floor.

“What can I say? I know a guy,” Lando said, a smug smile on his face.

The cabin _was_ pretty big, and Wedge almost didn’t want to know how much they paid to rent the place for two weeks. Besides the mudroom, the cabin had two floors, while the front wall solely consisted of large window panes that made the whole wall a window overlooking the slopes. The main floor had a decent sized kitchen, and a living room with huge, overstuffed chairs, not at all like the lumpy common room sofas from the dorms, that all surrounded a fireplace.

“We’ll have to make a grocery run tomorrow,” Luke said, looking through the cabinets in the kitchen. “Unless we want to eat crackers and canned tomato soup for the next two weeks.”

They dragged their bags and sleeping bags up the stairs to what wasn’t exactly a room so much as an area with a balcony overlooking the living room. There were four bunk beds, arranged in a U-shape, everyone reaching to toss their stuff onto one of them.

Han and Leia immediately claimed the bottom bunk of the one to the immediate left, Han saying Chewie would sleep above them, since he was still downstairs getting firewood. Biggs took the bottom bunk of one of the others, Lando taking the top bunk of another, leaving Wedge and Luke to share the last one. Wedge threw his sleeping bag up top, and kicked his bag underneath the bed.

Wedge followed the others down and outside to chop and haul wood, and when the fire was built, they all sank into the chairs to drink the hot chocolate Leia brought from her room, eating the soup Luke found, with promises to go to the store in the morning.

* * *

Despite the fact they were dead exhausted from the previous day, Wedge woke up at dawn with the orange light of sunrise streaming in through the window. He covered his head with his sleeping bag, and tried to go back to sleep, but after awhile he gave up, and went downstairs.

Sitting at the counter was the only other person awake, Leia. She was wearing all-white, from her snow pants to her puffy vest, and drinking from something in one of the mismatched mugs from the cabinets. “Good morning, bedhead,” she snorted into her mug, looking him over. “I found some coffee in the pantry, want some?”

“God, yes, please,” Wedge said, heading for the coffee pot. In the cabinet he grabbed a thick mug that looked like it had been made in a child’s art class, but it was the biggest one there.

They didn’t have any milk, but Leia pointed out that there was a thing of sugar, so Wedge just took the coffee black, and rejoined her at the counter. They sat in companionable silence until the rest of the group awoke and made their way downstairs.

When everyone got changed, they split up into groups to run errands. “I’ll take Chewie and Leia to do the grocery run,” Lando said. “Toss me the keys, Han.”

Han tossed them, but said, “Be careful with her!”

“ _Han!_ ” Leia rolled her eyes.

Han shook his head, “I better come with you. You don’t know how to handle her in the snow.”

“ _I_ sold her to you!” Lando said, throwing up his hands in the air. “Fine, Chewie go with them to get the skis.” Chewie said something that Wedge assumed was an agreement.

Luke caught Wedge’s eye as he rolled his eyes at Han, mouthing, _overprotective_.

The three of them and Biggs all trekked down to the Hoth ski lodge at the foot of the mountain to get the rental skis they’d reserved, and take them back to the cabin. It took awhile to haul everyone’s skis, but they managed when Chewie grabbed both Han and Leia’s as well as his own. By the time they managed to get back to the cabin, they saw the van pulling back up. They dropped the skis in the mud room and went to the van to see Han opening the back door, and handing off brown paper bags. With all of them, they only needed one trip.

When they put the bags down on the kitchen counter, Leia called out, “We’ve got provisions!” pulling out bottles of alcohol.

Luke grinned back at Wedge, “Is it still against the rules if we’re off campus?”

Wedge sighed, exasperatedly, “Yes.” But he was smiling, fondly. He shook his head at Luke, taking the bottles to put them in the fridge.

After lunch, they headed to the slopes. Since no one had gone skiing in over a year, Wedge especially, they headed to the bunny slope first, piling two-by-two into the ski lifts. Somehow, every time, Wedge ended up pressed against Luke, feeling the press of his body through layers and layers of clothing.

After half a dozen runs, Chewbacca bailed to the triple black diamond slope-- the Kessel Run-- and while Han boasted that he could do it in less than twelve minutes, no one saw him making any attempts that afternoon. Later, he and Leia left for Smuggler’s Notch, one of the black diamond runs, leaving Luke and Wedge making runs down the bunny slope together, having lost Biggs and Lando somewhere.

As they rode the ski lift, Wedge nudged Luke’s shoulder, “You don’t have to keep going on this one with me, you can go hang out with Biggs or Lando.”

Luke bumped his shoulders, “C’mon, I wanna hang out with you, Wedge.”

* * *

Over the next couple of days, everyone came and went from the cabin as they pleased for the most part, with Wedge waking up one morning to Biggs asking him to go with him to the blue square slope that neither of them could remember the name of. Wedge was unsure about it, because he hadn’t been skiing since he was a kid except for the past couple of days, but he did have to admit that the bunny slope was getting boring. Luke joked that he could join him and Leia on the black diamond, but Wedge was certainly not ready for that, and went off with Biggs.

They ended up having a good time, and after a couple of runs, Biggs stopped at the bottom of the lift to check his phone. He bit the tip of his glove to pull it off with his teeth, and then pulled out his phone. “They want us to meet for lunch at the ski lodge,” he told Wedge. He nodded, and they began their trek up the hill to the Hoth lodge and cafeteria. They left their skis on the bars downstairs and half undressed, tying their jackets around their waists.

Upstairs, they looked around the crowded cafeteria for their group, spotting them at two tables that were pushed together. When Luke saw them, he stood up and waved. “I’d know that bright orange snowsuit anywhere,” Luke laughed as Wedge sat down next to him. His face was flushed from the cold.

Wedge went off to buy something from one of the stations, ending up with a hamburger and a plate of fries. Back at the table, Biggs had pulled up a chair, but Luke moved over to accommodate Wedge, smiling at him as he stole fries off his plate. The following hour or so was spent heating up and laughing at everyone’s stories for the day, including one where Luke was knocked out for approximately ten seconds after getting off the ski lift with Han and Leia. Luke’s face was red, burying it behind Wedge’s shoulder as they laughed at Han imitating the fall.

* * *

Another morning, after sleeping for a solid ten, exhausted hours, the group collectively decided to take the day off. It had been snowing all night and through the morning, and they decided that it would be much more productive to spend the day making snow angels and snowmen. When most of the group had gone back inside for lunch, Luke stole Wedge’s red scarf, tying it around the neck of his significantly smaller snowman, and proclaiming it “ _Wedge_ ,” even though Wedge argued that they were the _same height_. Luke stuck his tongue out at him, and Wedge had to chase him to get the scarf back.

They both collapsed in the snow, panting, “This was way more exhausting than I remembered,” Wedge said. Luke nodded. He’d taken Wedge’s scarf again, and had wrapped it around his own neck. He’d unzipped his jacket a little bit to vent, and Wedge eyed it. Moving quickly, he grabbed a handful of snow and shoved it down Luke’s shirt.

“Wedge!” Luke howled, flinging snow back at him. Wedge only laughed, rolling around in the snow until Luke climbed on top of him, unzipping Wedge’s jacket and pushing snow into it too. They struggled for the upper hand on the spot until they were both exhausted _and_ shivering, and they helped each other up and into the mud room in order to strip down into less wet clothing. Their pants were fine, so they just grabbed long sleeve shirts from their bags and collapsed onto one of the couches with Luke’s sleeping bag.

They’d just meant to sit down for a few minutes until they found the strength to move again, but the warmth of the fire and the exhaustion lulled them into falling asleep. When Wedge awoke, groggy, he wasn’t sure what time it was, but he became gradually more aware of his surroundings. Somehow, he and Luke had become wrapped around each other and the blanket, with Luke still sleeping peacefully-- and drooling on the pillow.

Looking up from Luke, he saw Han sitting across from them with a book. Han raised his eyebrow at him, and Wedge felt the need to defend himself. "It's not like--" Before he could even finish the sentence, Han didn’t look like he believed him.

* * *

“Hey look what I found in one of the closets,” Lando said, coming back into the living room. He was holding a board game above him, one that Wedge hadn’t seen since probably freshman year of college when his own RA thought board games were a great bonding strategy-- the Game of Life.

“I love that game!” Luke said, looking up. Leia agreed with him.

“Cool, let's set it up,” Lando said, and Luke hopped up off the couch to push the oversized ottomans out of the way. Everyone gathered around the colorful game except for Biggs, who’d gone off to call his girlfriend.

They began passing around the little plastic minivans, Leia claiming the white one, and saying, “Han’s on my team!”

“What? There’s no teams in Life!” Lando objected, grabbing the rules. Han just shrugged, sitting back with his ankles crossed in front of him.

From what Wedge understood, the point of the game was to get as much money as possible and be more successful than everyone else, which he thought would have been easy, considering both Han and Lando were business majors, even if Lando didn’t actually go to their school. But apparently, they were also playing on some sort of long standing strategy that Wedge wasn’t quite sure he understood.

Considering they were all in college, they all chose to go that route in the game, except for Chewie, who spent five minutes arguing with Han about whether it was smarter to start working or not. Chewie apparently won the argument, because Leia handed him a career card, making Chewie an artist. Several rounds later, Wedge was an accountant making $30,000 and Chewie was an artist making $100,000.

Wedge watched Luke, to his right, spin, and land on _Get Married_. Luke held out his hand for another little person to put beside him in his green minivan, “Give me Mara Jade, Leia!”

“She’s got a name?” Lando said, raising his eyebrow.

“Of course she does,” Leia said. “You’ll be giving your wife a name too, Lando. Now spin!”

A round later, Leia landed on the same space. Han shrugged, “I guess you’re here to make an honest man out of me. I can’t believe we’ve been living in sin this whole time.”

Leia kissed his cheek, and spun again. As soon as she saw the number, she looked delighted, and slammed her little car down on the _Baby Boy!_ tile, looking Luke right in the eye as she shouted, “Ben!”

Luke cried out, “No!” falling flat on his back, “That’s supposed to be my kid’s name!”

“Ha! I got there first this time!” Leia said smugly, “ _You_ have to name your kid after Dad this time!” Luke groaned.

Han leaned over to Wedge, speaking out of the side of his mouth, “They get real into this.”

“Yeah,” Wedge said, shaking his head fondly, “I can see that.”

“We planned our whole lives in this game from the time we were twelve,” Leia said, matter-of-fact, crossing her arms in triumph. “We used to argue about who got to name their kids after our favorite relatives.”

“Used to?” Wedge said, causing Lando to snicker.

“Wedge, your turn,” Luke said defeatedly from the floor. He groaned as Wedge leaned over the board to spin, pulling himself up to watch as Wedge moved his car the eight spaces to the marriage tile.

“What gender do you want?” Leia said, fishing in the bag of pink and blue people.

“Surprise me,” Wedge said, holding out his hand. When he looked down, there was a little pink person in his hand.

“What’s her name?” Luke asked.

“Do I have to?” Wedge said.

Luke bumped his shoulder into Wedge’s, “Yes! Unless you want me to name her.”

“Fine,” Wedge said, “um,” he completely blanked on names for a moment, and then suddenly the only name he could think of was his ex’s. “Nora?”

“Alright, Nora in the Wedgemobile,” Luke said, plucking the pink figure from his hand and putting it into Wedge’s red minivan. “My turn! C’mon, let me roll a kid!”

The game dragged on for hours. Eventually Biggs came back from calling his girlfriend, and joined Lando’s team in a civil union, the man swapping out his pink _Tendra_ , for a blue Biggs. Luke never ended up having any children, the man groaning as Leia gloated about her three children, including the twins, when Luke passed the “spot of no return” when it came to children. Wedge had no idea people got that into the game.

Nearing midnight, everyone was yawning every other turn, but they were determined to finish the game, so they played on. At some point, Luke had leaned just a little too close to Wedge, and laid his head on Wedge’s shoulder, making Wedge hyper-aware of Luke as they played through the game.

Eventually, nearing the end, Luke landed on the _Become a Grandparent!_ tile, causing him to sit up and shout, “Yes!” with much more exuberance than Wedge would have thought possible after playing the game for so long. Luke turned to Lando, who was still in possession of the rules. “Can I put my grandkid in the car?”

Lando looked down at the rules, cross-eyed. “...there’s nothing in the rules against it.”

“But he doesn’t even have kids!” Leia protested, “How can he have a grandkid?”

Luke stuck his tongue out at her, “Doesn’t matter! I adopted her, hand over a girl!” he said, taking the pink figure Leia reluctantly held out, setting her in the back of his car, and naming her Rey.

As Wedge watched Luke move his car back into position, he missed the press of Luke’s cheek on his shoulder. He thought Luke had realized he was doing it, and was done, but as soon as his turn was over, he settled back against the foot of the couch they were using as a backrest, and laid his head back on Wedge’s shoulder.

* * *

Several nights later, they left the slopes early because the night was clear and they had a fire blazing strong back at the cabin. But instead of sitting inside by the fire like the rest of them, Wedge could see Luke sitting outside on the deck off the main floor. He could see him through the glass doors, wrapped in a blanket, sitting on a dusted-off lounging deck chair.

Wedge opened the door, pulling on his boots but not bothering to lace them, to cross the snowy deck to join him. He pulled one of the other deck chairs with him, dusting it off it sit next to him. He pulled his jacket tighter around him as he crossed his legs, looking at Luke looking up at the stars. “The stars out here are really something, aren’t they?” Wedge said. Luke nodded.

They’d turned off the ski slope lights, the night was clear and beautiful, and Wedge could see all of the stars. This far out, light pollution wasn’t nearly as bad as it was by the college. So they just sat there, in companionable silence for awhile, until Luke moved to stretch. Wedge looked up at him. “I’m getting some hot chocolate, want some?” Luke asked. Wedge nodded.

When Luke came back, he was dragging the blanket like a cape, and was holding two mugs. He handed them both to Wedge to get settled, and then took one back. Wedge raised the mug to his lips, steam coming off of it pleasantly as he took a sip.

“Oh wow,” Wedge said, sputtering, as the spiked hot chocolate was washed down, “that’s uh-- strong.”

Luke laughed, “Sorry, I should have warned you, Leia was making them.” Luke looked over at him, “Aren’t you cold?” Wedge looked down. He _was_ in just his pajama pants and his ski jacket. He shrugged. “C’mere,” Luke said, holding open his blanket to Wedge. Wedge shuffled over, letting Luke wrap the blanket around them.

They continued the companionable silence as they drank from their mugs, until Wedge caught Luke looking at him, his head just inches from Wedge’s. And he thought, if he just turned his head, just leaned forward a few inches--

But instead, Wedge pulled back just slightly, not letting Luke know he’d seen him. He looked distastefully down at his mug, and thought, _damn it,_ that was why he didn’t want to let himself drink any more around Luke, it might happen again.

It was enough to be friends with him. It would have to be. He didn’t think he could-- not again--

* * *

The rest of the trip passed far too quickly, and soon enough they were piling back into the car, and locking the place up, driving the five hours back at the dorms to drop Wedge and Biggs off. Luke volunteered to help Wedge carry his things while they looped around to Biggs’ apartment, and Wedge took the time to ask about his other plans for the rest of the break while they lugged the bags back up to Wedge’s room.

When they dropped them back on his floor, Luke made a face, “Dad expects us to come home _sometime_.”

Wedge laughed, patting him on the shoulder. “Let's get you back downstairs so you don’t miss your car.” Luke made another face.

They waited outside in the slush and snow of the campus, nothing like that at the cabin. Wedge stuck his hands in his pocket, rocking back and forth on his heels to keep warm. When they spotted the van coming closer, Wedge offered his hand to Luke and said, “Have a good break, Luke, I’ll see you in two weeks.”

There was a look of decisiveness in Luke’s eye, and instead of going in for a handshake, he pulled Wedge in for a hug. “Bye, Wedge,” he said, pulling back and running towards the van.

Wedge felt miserable seeing him go.

* * *

A couple of days before classes started again, when his residents had all started appearing again, Wedge got a knock on his door. Not bothering to look through the peephole, he pulled his door open to see Luke standing there.

“Luke,” Wedge said. He hadn’t seen him in two weeks, but seeing him there… he felt really relieved.

Luke leaned against the doorframe, smiling, “Hey, do you wanna come with me to pick up books from the bookstore?”

Wedge felt himself cringe internally-- engineering books cost _so much_ \-- but he nodded. “Let me grab my coat. And wallet.” Luke nodded. As they walked across campus to the bookstore, Wedge bumped shoulders with him. “How was the rest of your break?”

“Well the dinners were great,” Luke said sarcastically, “Dad was ignoring Han the whole time he was there. Made him sleep on the couch.” He snorted, “What about you? Did you enjoy having peace and quiet for once?”

“Nah,” Wedge said. “Break was fine. Hera, the RLC of G, and her husband held a dinner for us RAs who stayed over break. Sabine came,” he mentioned, Luke nodded, “Because she doesn’t, ya know, really get along with her family.”

“Relatable,” Luke said, as soon as they reached the bookstore doors. He held open the door for Wedge.

Instead of going directly to the textbooks, the two of them wandered around the bookstore, spending an hour perusing through the books before they even got to their textbooks.

* * *

Wedge felt gross as he climbed the steps up to his floor with Cassian. He groaned when he got to the top step, “I’m never going to the gym again.”

Cassian laughed, patting his shoulder, “You wanted to go.”

He groaned, bending over. “You invited me!” Well, it had been his fault. After being sore half the ski trip, he thought he might actually try going to the gym for once since sophomore year.

“I’m going again Tuesday night, you in?” Cassian asked, pausing on the next step to the third floor. Wedge groaned, but agreed.

He unzipped his bag as he stepped through the door, pausing to look for his keys. Usually he kept them in the side pocket of his bag, but he must have dropped them in the gym bag when Cassian came to get him. He cursed as he dug through all the shit he hadn’t emptied out in years.

“If you need me to say something--” he heard a female voice say around the corner, making him freeze. It was muffled, but loud enough to where he thought it might have been coming from the kitchen around the corner. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought it might have been Leia’s voice.

“I don’t--” a male voice responded, but he was cut off.

“I’m always here to defend your honor, Luke,” she said, “even though I’m sure you don’t have any.”

“Leia!” he heard Luke groan loudly, a little closer, and then the sound of a door shutting. Then with Luke still standing near the door. “I don’t like anyone!”

Wedge heard the muffled sound of Leia speaking, though he couldn’t make out what she was saying. Suddenly, Wedge felt very out of place there, his hands closing around his keys.

“--best friend!” he heard Luke say much louder, though he didn’t catch the beginning of the sentence. “Be right back.” Then, he heard footsteps, and the sound of the kitchen door opening, Luke coming around the corner, spotting Wedge the moment he looked up.

He looked like a deer caught in the headlights, causing Wedge to pull out his keys, “Lost my keys?”

Luke nodded slowly, still looking a little out of it, and suddenly Wedge wanted to get out of there, his heart beating just a little bit too fast. He didn’t even bother to wave to Luke as he hurried to his room, shutting the door behind himself. He leaned back up against the door, as if barricading it, with his hand clutching the shoulder strap of his bag. He was jealous! God. He thought he’d wanted them to be okay, just to be friends. He’d thought it was good when Luke didn’t like him, back in August, didn’t want to date him. But now-- he didn’t understand how he could have ever thought that.

* * *

At five on a Sunday night, the kitchen was always fairly empty, unlike the common room. The kitchen doubled as a study room, with two white boards on one of the walls, and tables better suited for studying than eating. Wedge sighed, leaning back from his computer. The _extremely expensive_ 3D model system he’d bought earlier in the year was open up on his screen, and he rubbed his eyes. He’d been looking at the engine model for hours, and he really did not want to be working on it for as long as he had. It wasn’t due till Wednesday, but he had his first exam for his final design elective class on Friday and didn’t want to put off studying for that any longer than he had to.

Wedge’s phone buzzed where he’d left it next to Luke’s philosophy book. He picked it up, swiping open the text. Hobbie’d invited him over to play video games. He received another text as he was looking at his phone, with a promise he could also look at Hobbie’s schematics on the project. He sighed, leaning back in the chair.

He looked over at Luke beside him, typing on his laptop. His face was scrunched up in determination as he was pumping out ten pages of an essay that was due at nine the following morning. Wedge just thought, _he’s beautiful_.

He glanced down at his phone, clicking it off, and putting it back face down on the table.

When his eyes flicked up, Luke looked at him, “What?”

Wedge shook his head, “Just got a text about the project,” and went back to the program.

* * *

Despite it being Wedge’s last semester, he really wasn’t feeling the pressure. Maybe it was just because he was trying his hardest not to think about it, or maybe it was the company. He was laying backwards on Luke’s bed, with his head hanging off the side as he watched Luke upside down. He’d since gotten used to being in Luke’s room again, without flashbacks to waking up in his bed. Sometimes he still thought about it, but tried not to. Instead, he looked up at the wall of posters.

Luke was on the ground, going through his stacks of CDs trying to pick another one. The last one they’d listened to played on repeat on the stereo he had on Han’s desk, since his roommate never used it. It was the Cantina Band, again-- Wedge was pretty sure they were Luke’s favorite band. Wedge had never heard of them before he’d met Luke. Now he knew all their songs.

“Listen, Luke, you know I love the eighties’ greatest hits as well as anyone,” actually he was pretty sure no one else liked them as much as he and Luke did, “but do you have anything more reccent than the 80’s?”

“Yes! I have this, um,” he reached down and grabbed one of the CDs, handing it over to Wedge, “Cyndi Lauper CD? It’s from the nineties!” he frowned looking down at it, “Just kidding, this is actually Leia’s.” He tossed it back onto the stack, leaning back against the bed. Wedge rolled his eyes, and then rolled over onto his stomach. Luke looked over his shoulder, “Wanna play video games? I don’t think we’ve played this one my dad got me, yet,” he said, reaching for the game labeled Hyperburner.

* * *

They’d decided to meet up for coffee at the coffee shop below the library after class, sitting at one of the round tables under the window. Luke had gotten some sort of crazy sugary concoction that Wedge was pretty sure was going to give Luke heart disease, especially since he’d let Wedge try it, and Wedge almost choked. He was gonna stick to the simple black coffee, thanks.

They’d just been sitting there for a few minutes when Wedge heard, “Luke, Wedge!” They turned to the counter where it was coming from, to see Biggs with his arm around a blonde asian girl. Biggs waved, and grabbing his and the girl’s coffees, he joined them by the table.

“Hey Biggs, Kandji,” Luke said at them. “What are you guys doing here? Wanna join us?”

“Can’t,” Biggs said. “We’ve gotta get to Kandji’s poetry professor’s office hours.”

Wedge watched the conversation, and by the context, he assumed Kandji was Bigg’s girlfriend. This was confirmed when Luke looked over to Wedge, “Oh shoot, sorry-- Wedge, this is Kandji, Biggs’ girlfriend,” he waved, “Kandji, this is my best friend, Wedge.” Luke said something else to them, but Wedge wasn’t paying any attention. He’d heard that correctly, hadn’t he? Luke had just called him his best friend?

Luke continued speaking with them for another minute before they had to go, and before Luke had even turned back to Wedge, the words were tumbling from his mouth, “I’m your best friend?”

Luke was smiling, with a little bit of confusion on his face. “Yeah, of course, Wedge, you’re my best friend.” He paused, half smiling, “Except for Han and Leia, but they’re family. They’re… different. Not like you and me.”

For a second, Wedge paused. Suddenly, Wedge felt a change that he noticed before. It wasn’t until Luke had said that that he realized everything had changed. He spent so much time with Luke, nearly every hour he wasn’t in class or on duty or forced to study with his group, he was with Luke. He rather study with Luke, even if it meant looking at the same model for five hours, than go hang out with his group and play video games!

“Yeah,” Wedge said, throat dry. “You’re my best friend, too, Luke.” Among other things, he meant it.

* * *

By midterms, Wedge was completely rethinking the “no pressure” feelings he’d had earlier in the semester. That was when he had a _working coffee pot,_ that wasn’t _broken in the middle of midterms_ , when everything was terrible and he was stressed. He’d been feeling agitated all day, so bad that he’d had to hand the duty phone off to Cassian for the first time all year with promises that he’d make it up to him. But he had an exam the next day, and he kind of just didn’t want to deal with anything or anyone at all.

But then he heard someone knock on the door, and groaning, he pushed away from his desk, taking off his headphones and leaving them on top of his laptop. As he stopped at the door, he braced himself, really, really hoping it wasn’t more RA business. If he encountered _one more person_ who needed him to go all the way to the lobby to get the master key because they locked themselves out of their room he might kill someone.

He looked through the peephole, thinking it might be Porkins again, but instead he saw Luke smiling at him. He was holding a cardboard carton of two large coffees from the coffee place all the way across campus over at the library. Wedge pulled the door open to Luke shoving the tray in his face. “I brought you coffee,” he said, walking in past Wedge.

Wedge took the tray, sitting down at his desk, taking the nearest coffee, taking a long drink from it. It was the best thing he’d had in a week since that good for nothing pot broke-- what good was being an engineer if he couldn’t fix a damn coffee pot? Before he could help himself, Wedge heard himself saying, "Oh my god I love you.” He heard Luke laugh, sitting down on his bed and putting his hands on his knees. He swallowed the lump in his throat down with more coffee. Luke must have gotten it extra hot, because it was still really warm and shouldn’t have been after the walk over from the library. “Aren’t you going to take your coffee?” Wedge asked of the other coffee.

Luke glanced at the other one, “Oh, no, that’s also for you.” He shrugged, a little bashfully, “I figured you could save it for later, since your coffee pot would also be broken later.” Wedge looked at him in wonder. Luke seemed to squirm, and instead turned the conversation on Wedge’s work, letting him vent about it for a few minutes.

When Luke let himself out, Wedge’s eyes followed him, thinking that he was definitely not better off alone after all.

* * *

Near one am, there was a loud banding on Wedge’s door. He wasn’t sleeping, just on his computer, but he could hear the pounding through his headphones. Before he could even get up to get the door, he heard Luke call out, “ _Wedge,_ ” his voice slurred just a little as he dragged out Wedge’s name. He was probably a little drunk, Wedge thought. It wouldn’t be the first time one of his residents had gotten up to wander the halls while intoxicated. As long as they didn’t have any alcohol on them, he usually let it slide.

Wedge sighed, shaking his head fondly as he got up to open the door to Luke. When he did, Luke was leaning against the frame, smiling at him. “Hi,” he said. His hair was mussed, but he reached up to run his hand through it again. He was clearly drunk. From Wedge’s experience, Luke was a pretty happy, affectionate drunk, and it was no different now. He couldn’t find it within himself to be annoyed with Luke the way he always was with the others.

“They didn’t leave you here like this, did they?” he said of Luke’s friends, his tone warning.

“No, I escaped,” he said happily, as if his room wasn’t ten feet down the hallway. "You didn't want to come out with us so I wanted to see you.” They’d invited Wedge out with him, but he’d declined-- it was one thing to drink with them in the controlled space of their own dorms, or very, very far off campus like in the mountains, but another to go out partying with them. Luke leaned against the doorway, his head loling to the side as he struggled with balance.

Wedge shook his head, but he couldn’t help smiling at Luke. “C’mon, let's get you to bed before anyone else sees you out in the hallway.”

“Okay,” Luke said, swaying a little bit as he walked. He reached out to steady himself on the wall, causing Wedge to reach for his shoulders to steer him in the right direction. At the door, Luke fumbled with his keys, until Wedge took them from Luke’s hands and unlocked the door for him. Luke was leaning against the door, grabbing around Wedge’s shoulders as he tried to get him inside.

He manhandled Luke into his bed, throwing the covers back and dropping Luke onto the bed. He was glad Luke wasn’t wearing shoes already, he didn’t want to have to undress him. “This time, stay in bed, please,” he told Luke. “You can see me tomorrow if you really want to.”

Luke’s face was pressed into the pillow, but Wedge managed to hear him say, “Thanks for always taking care of me.”

Wedge patted his hair, “Of course.”

He made a move to leave the room, but Luke shifted, grabbing his wrist. “Stay with me,” he mumbled, his eyes already closed. “Just another minute.”

Wedge sighed again, but obeyed. He pulled Luke’s desk chair over to the bed, and listened to the sound of Luke’s breathing. He told himself it would only be until Luke fell asleep. He reached over, to pet his hair again, when Luke’s hand fumbled around to grab his wrist again, as if to hold him there.

But then suddenly Luke’s eyes were open, and they had a particular clarity they hadn’t had a moment before. Wedge wasn’t sure if he was imagining the clarity or not. “This is why you’re my best friend,” Luke said, his voice sounding tired.

“I know,” Wedge said solemnly.

“I wanna tell you everything, you know? But I don’t know if you’d wanna hear it,” Luke said. Wedge wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but remained quiet. Luke was one of the most open people he’d ever met. Probably more open than Wedge deserved. “But I’d wanna tell you anyway, because you’re my best friend.”

Luke’s eyes were closed again, and after a moment, his hand went slack on Wedge’s wrist, his breathing becoming even. Wedge looked down on him solemnly, and felt like a cold hand had closed around his heart. Luke was-- right. Luke was his best friend. He deserved Wedge to be as open with him as Luke was with Wedge. He deserved to know the truth about Wedge, about the way he felt about him.

“Goodnight, Luke,” he said softly. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

* * *

In the morning, Wedge sent Luke a text saying that he needed to see him, and Luke replied that he’d be back at the dorms around six. Wedge hated having to wait. It only made things worse. In the morning, he was less sure of his conviction, and the text had been sent in a rare moment of motivation. He’d put the phone down immediately and had gotten up to pace the room. When Luke texted him back, the nerves came back in full force.

Nearing six, Wedge began feeling the panic, and to calm his nerves he went for a walk the long way around campus. By the time he was back at the building it was half past six, and he was feeling better about the whole thing. It would be better if Luke knew. It felt far too much like lying to keep this from someone he called his best friend.

Something about the inevitability of knowing that he was going to tell him, that all the stress he had when wondering what Luke might do would be over, made Wedge calm. Of course, that was thrown out the window as soon as he stepped out onto the second floor and he heard Luke’s voice. But he steeled his nerves, and stepped into the common room.

Luke was sitting on one of the couches, next to Han, with Leia laying across both their laps. He hesitated, for just one more moment, watching them laughing. As he stood there, Luke’s eyes glanced over to him. The jovial expression he had on his face slipped off into something more concerned when he saw Wedge’s face.

“Luke,” Wedge said. “Can I talk to you?”

“Yeah,” Luke said, lifting Leia’s legs off of him. He told them he’d be back, and followed Wedge to his room. The room was lit dimly, by the couple of lamps he’d had on from before his walk. As soon as Wedge shut the door, Luke sat on his bed, his face worried, as if he’d done something wrong. “I’m sorry about last night, we got carried away after midterms.”

Wedge sighed, “It’s not about that, not really. I just--” he looked down, “I just feel like I have something to tell you, after last night.” Luke nodded, but still looked worried, as Wedge took a seat beside him on the bed. He looked down his hands. But he couldn’t do this without looking him in the eye. “You’re my best friend but I--” he shut his mouth. But he couldn’t hold it in any longer, blurting it out, “I might be in love with you.”

Luke stared back at him, his mouth slack.

Wedge had had a couple of girlfriends before, dated a guy his freshman year, but this was the first time he’d ever felt like this. Luke was his best friend, but more than that. Wedge thought about him constantly, wanted to spend every day with him. He told Luke this, watching Luke’s face change in astonishment.

“I thought you just liked me as a friend?” Luke said, bewildered.

“No,” Wedge said.

“But that’s why I’ve been so friendly!” Luke said quickly, “I thought if that’s all I could get from you, I’d take it!” Luke looked like he’d just realized something incredible, and was looking at Wedge with wide eyes.

“What?”

Luke’s face melted into something of relief, a fond look spreading over his features. “Come here you idiot!” he said, pulling Wedge forward to kiss him. Luke was laughing, “I’ve been in love with you this whole time! I can’t believe you didn’t notice.”

Wedge felt his face go red-- his ex had told him he could be the most oblivious person on the planet. He went to bury his face in his hands, but Luke grabbed them, pulling Wedge’s hand into his lap.

“I used to think you didn’t like me from all the rule breaking, that’s why I used to apologize for it all the time,” Luke said, grinning at Wedge.

Wedge snorted, “I wasn’t so worried about your rule breaking so much as _mine_.” He could feel Luke’s hand warm on his.

Luke shook his head, “Oh, Dad wouldn’t fire you, I’d never let him. I’d just have to threaten to never speak to him again,” Luke shrugged, “Dad tried getting rid of Han once, Leia changed her name.”

“That’s the story behind her name change?” Wedge frowned. He’d been meaning to ask the whole year. Luke grinned cheekily, and then leaned forward, planting a kiss on Wedge’s cheek.

Luke stood up, pulling Wedge with him. “C’mon,” he said, Wedge letting Luke pull him up and out of the room. When they exited the room and went around the corner, still holding Wedge’s hand, Luke cheerfully announced, “Guys, Wedge and I are dating now!”

Wedge covered his face with his hands to hide the fact he was beet red. And ridiculously happy.

* * *

Two months later, Wedge walked across the stage at graduation, knowing that there was at least one person in the audience cheering for him. When the ceremony was over, and families were rushing around to meet their graduates, Wedge was looking around for his when he saw the familiar blond man rushing towards him. Luke threw himself into Wedge’s arms, holding him close.

Luke pulled back just enough to kiss him, and told Wedge, "I'm really proud of you."

“Thanks, Luke,” he said, smiling back at his boyfriend. He held him close for another minute, still reveling in the fact that he was there at all-- that he had this, that he was dating his best friend. He put his arm around the man, pulling him close, and said, “What’s next?”

Luke laughed, “I don’t even want to think about it. Lets just enjoy the summer.”

**Author's Note:**

> Tbh, I mostly wrote this as stress relief and because I didn’t have to research much. I was having some trouble with the Dark Side AU because I wasn’t getting the characterization I was looking for, so I had to put that on the backburner. 
> 
> I’m heading to Paris for the month of June with school, so other than a really short fic I'll probably be posting like Wednesday I probably won't be writing anything else till July.


End file.
